SKIP AHEAD:
What Is A Content Writing?
Content writing is all about putting what your business does into words to inform and attract internet wanderers and search engine crawlers to your website. To better showcase your skills and services, rank higher on search engines, and have an online presence so people can better understand the ins and outs of what you do, how you do it, and why it's valuable. The best way to do that is through online content, such as:
Articles
Blog posts
Genre pages (web pages)
Product descriptions
Bios and profiles
How-tos
FAQs
Other forms of content that aren't written:
Videos
Photographs
Illustrations and drawings
Infographics
What is The Point of Web Content?
The best business, products, and services in the world can only succeed if people know where to find you, what you do, and how it benefits them. That's what content writing is about, being seen for who you are and what you do—appealing to the reader through your unique value proposition.
Why Do You Need to Produce All This Written Content?
Customers don't know you. That's what it boils down to; they don't know who you are, what you offer, your values, and your value. We've all meandered around the internet searching for a plumber or a new mattress (I speak from recent experience). We want information. We want to know how a business works, what material the mattress is made from, and what experience the plumber has before we trust that they might be the right company.
Your website is a living CV, a constantly updating, breathing web of documents that prove who you are, what you know, your values, and what you have to offer. Blogs, profiles, and product descriptions are all a necessary part of the information-hungry system we live in. FAQs answer questions about what we are buying. Blog posts and articles show that we are dealing with experts in their fields, providing information to the casual reader and working as a testimonial that your business knows its stuff. It's just a little bit magical.
Do You Have To Keep Adding More And More And More Content Onto Your Website For The Rest of Time?
No, absolutely not.
If you are looking to create an online profile, one that showcases what you do and how you do it, that's fine. Everyone isn't looking to maintain a blog or lure in organic traffic. You might not even be interested in ranking on search engines like Google. For some people, the point of hiring a content creator is to craft an online platform where potential customers can have their questions answered and an online profile that lays it all out openly and transparently. I applaud that.
SEO—Three Letters To Confuse
SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization; its primary purpose is to increase your website ranking on search engines like Google. Ranking means that when someone types in your services, your website appears on the first page of Google. While keywords and a significant portion of SEO, it takes care of itself as long as the content is well written, on topic, engaging, and original. There are some additional aspects to SEO, but full SEO is only necessary for people who want to rank. It is not required if you are only looking to have an online profile for people who are looking for you directly.
Even with my incredibly generic name, if someone types Katherine M Kennedy into Google, they will find my website; I don't need to rank for that. But I would like search results to show up if someone types' content writer'—Currently, I won't rank for those keywords as A) I haven't produced enough 'content writer' content, B) It's a tough keyword to rank for as there is a lot of competition C) I keep getting sidelined talking about being an author, writer and writing posts about Rick and Morty. I wouldn't recommend the approach I've taken with my website to a client. Still, I'm doing what I want with this site, cos it's mine, and sometimes I need a break from SEO, and I just want to write about writing because writing is fascinating.
To summarize, unless you care about ranking on search engines, you don't need to overly concern yourself with SEO; you need well-crafted, accurate, and engaging content that describes what you do.
What If You DO Want to Rank On Search Engines?
If you want to rank on search engines, you need content. You need pictures, writing, and even videos if you can manage it. You will not rank if you have one blog article written on your favorite color for a voice over website. You need content that is relevant. Content that is in keeping with the core topics of your business will automatically be keywords rich. It
Your Content should:
Be well-researched and factually accurate—content that is well-researched, honest, and backs up its claims creates a lasting relationship with clients and customers. Citing sources for stats and ideas also improves your credibility.
Represent you and your business—through tone, the processes you follow, your values, and your standards, you can showcase who you are and what you stand for.
Content should be relevant to the topic—relevant content is naturally keyword rich, and because it is not overly engineered, it won't fall prey to 'keyword stuffing', which Google penalizes.
It should be written to appeal to your audience, potential and existing customers.
Your content should be unique, avoiding plagiarism at all costs—Google and other search engines take plagiarism very seriously, de-ranking your site for duplicated ideas and unoriginality. If you have a choice between unoriginal, copied, or factually inaccurate content and a blank page, I recommend a blank page.
We All Know What We Want To See When We Are Online—Do that
We all use the internet to find goods and services, to research, to be informed, and to be amused. As a customer, you know what you want to see, but it's easy to get stuck in the mire, wondering how to offer the services you partake of daily. That's where SEO, content writers, website designer, and coders step in to help you out.
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